Rotation Animation Import

theonewhoknocks

I am doing a simple rotation in 3ds max of a fan spinning. There is no bones in the mesh. I know i'm suppose to import the object as a skeletal mesh. I know im suppose to bake animation, and also I know I have to untick the box that says Anim Rotation Only. Even after all of these steps, the skeletal mesh does not animate. I've had the similar issue with another asset and would like to know why rotation is not being picked up in UDK.

When I move the mesh up and down, it will play in UDK. But rotation specifically is not working, and I've looked everywhere for a solution.

ChristianB

If you want to animate a mesh with a simply rotation or something, it doesn't have to be a skeletal mesh, skeletal meshes are for objects with bones that are animated outside UDK or have a bone to let UDK know what to affect and what not to affect (i.e flags ect) But if you want something to just rotate around and around in udk just export it as a normal Static Mesh, when you have it in UDK make sure you add it as an InterpActor. Place it to where you want then go into the options of it (f4), expand Movement, set the Physics to PHYS_Rotating and then underneath it your see Rotation Rate, just expand them settings and enter what you would like and once you hit the play button in UDK your see your object rotate.

Hope that was what you were looking for

theonewhoknocks

Thank you. That was kind of what I was looking for, but what if I have a treasure box and I want the lid to rotate open when you a trigger. I want to create and export that animation into udk, but for some reason udk isnt picking up animations from static meshes that simply rotate.

ChristianB

You can either do it two ways, make the lid and bottom separate and just matinee the lid but I wouldn't recommend that tbh, I would just rig it in max or maya and then animate it in max or maya then export to UDK and have the animation play on trigger hit.

Hourences

Animations that can be done in Unreal like opening a chest should be done in Unreal. Better memory and cpu wise usually, and better/easier collision wise. Also gives greater control over the lighting (staticmeshes/interpactors can be lightmapped), and it gives greater flexibility workflow wise.